Category Archives: Equipment

When you’re re drinking two litres of water a day in Europe on long hikes, or 4-5 litres a day on Kilimanjaro it’s easy to get sick of the taste of water.

I use SiS hydration tablets for long hikes. They don’t offer any energy (i.e. they are calorie-free), but they taste nice (which encourages you to drink more) and replenish good thingies in your system. During the summer I was getting some cramps on cycling commute and after using these (one every other day) I stopped getting cramps.

Last week I drank from my bicycle water bottle on the way home from work. I had that immediate feeling of “that doesn’t taste right”, but it was very hot and sunny, and there was still half a mile of a hill to climb.

Along with the Leatherman knife that we were asked to review recently, we received a strange pair of folding scissors from the US company.

I was travelling in the US with work, and called home. Now my wife, who isn’t usually excited about camping gadgets, had opened the Leatherman box, glanced over the knife and opened the scissors package. Continue reading Leatherman Raptor review→

I’ve grown up with Victorinox Swiss Army knives, although Ishai’s first penknife was a Leatherman – a generous present for his 11th birthday.

A Leatherman isn’t as comfortable to hold as a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, so still prefer the red knife. However my Victorinox has been getting blunter and blunter so we’ve been taking Ishai’s super-sharp Leatherman away with us recently despite the weight penalty when hiking. Continue reading Leatherman Wingman review→

Since the moment I first put them on, these are simply the most comfortable pair of footwear I’ve ever owned. It’s the equivalent to wrapping your feet in a new duvet – you can feel the boot all around the foot. These boots arrived supple, and didn’t need any wearing in.

There are two schools of thought with overnight hiking – whether your kit can be fabricated on a shoe string budget, or weighing and then losing every last milligram of kit.

As a keen cyclist I know the cycling world is besotted with equipment weight loss. Manufacturers are always promoting their carbon frames and super light components. But the cheapest way of losing weight when it comes to hiking or cycling is off the walker/ cyclist. Losing a few kilos from the person will always provide the best weight saving. We won’t cover those here though.

This first aid kit is so good that it’s become our general purpose kit for all camps, hikes and holidays, for our scout Group and family. The kit contains pretty much everything that a competent first aider requires – standard scissors and field scissors, a proper pair of tweezers, different bandages, a clean mat, gauses, dressings, tapes and safety pins.